Well that escalated quickly! One minute Justin Sun was freeing us from the tyranny of inaction of the Steemit Incorporated hierarchy, the next, the top witnesses and influential stakeholders on the platform pulled off what can only be described as an incredibly stupid move.
So let's dive in, and check out the recent history of this incredible debacle.
The Takeover
It is no secret that @ned, ex-chairman of Steemit had lost interest in the place and simply wanted to live a quiet life enjoying his riches on some island somewhere. Which of course is fine, he and @dan started Steemit, so he's entitled to any success he has garnered from it.
Enter @justinsunsteemit CEO of the Tron network, to buy Steemit Incorporated for an undisclosed sum of money.
There is an initial announcement by Justin about a future migration to the Tron chain, this is not received well, and Justin backtracks and says that actually, he needs to sit down with the top witnesses and the Steemit team to discuss the future.
Okay, great so far...
The FUD
Justin's assurances go unheeded, as far as a lot of people are concerned he is a dirty liar not to be trusted. Words like centralisation start to be thrown about, fear, uncertainty, and doubt start to spread like wildfire.
The Softfork
Now we have what could well be viewed as a criminal act in the United States of America. The Steemit protocol is broken and the Steem code is changed so that Justin cannot touch the 65 million Steem that he has quite legally acquired.
The Revenge
Justin Sun uses customers' Steem placed on Poloniex and Binance exchanges to power up and create a witness so as to block them and take control back of the thing that he legally acquired.
The Aftermath & The Reality
Well the ashes are still smouldering on this one, so there will no doubt be further developments. However as it stands, Justin has probably realised by now that two wrongs do not make a right and is giving back the Steem which he essentially stole from innocent users.
The witnesses though have not realised how stupid they've been and how illegally they've acted.
They point to the promises made by @ned regarding Steemit's reserve of Steem, however those promises were broken a long time ago, and 200 million Steem has dwindled to 65 million Steem.
So why didn't they do what they've done now before?
Because they were scared of Ned, and of course because it was more obvious that it was completely illegal!
Last time I checked, you are allowed to sell something you own. Justin Sun bought Steemit Inc. and its assets, which of course amounts to 65 million Steem.
The Witnesses implemented code to stop him touching this Steem, because they mistakenly believe that it belongs to "the community", which of course it doesn't.
As I tried to point out 3.5 years ago in my article Steemit Is Not The Decentralised Platform You Think It Is Steemit.com is owned by a private company, whom own the IP for the cryptocurrency Steem.
In turn the website holds, and generates a large amount of Steem each day. Therefore they also own Steem, meaning it is NOT DECENTRALISED AND NEVER WAS.
I feel I have to shout that bit, because some people still don't get it.
Settling Dust
Who knows what's going to happen now? My guess is Justin will simply ask for his money back and walk away from this mess, which is the best outcome for the developers who implemented the softfork, however I'm not so sure if its the best thing for the platform.
Of course Justin might decide to seek revenge in the American courts. I don't know how many Steem Witnesses live in the States, however if I were them, I'd be very worried. They have essentially blocked somebody getting access to the thing they legally acquired, I cannot see any other result than a loss for them should this go to court.
Given the draconian state of the American legal system, whereby a person can spend a long time in prison for the most trifling of matters, if I were one of the instigators of softfork 22.2, I would be afraid, very afraid.
Unless of course I was a Steem Witness living in complete denial, thinking that I had protected the blockchain and my actions were just. Then, I'd be happy and blissfully unaware of my criminal status, right up until the point they threw me in jail.
So let's sit back, order more popcorn, and watch this hot mess unfold itself right in front of our very eyes.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? DID THE WITNESSES DO THE RIGHT THING, OR ARE THEY A BUNCH OF DELUDED WOULD-BE CRIMINALS WHO HAVE ROYALLY SCREWED THEMSELVES AND THIS PLATFORM?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
I disagree. The witnesses were open to talk with Justin. He only had to put his verbal commitments into something more concrete and the soft fork would of gone away. Instead, he used peoples Steem on exchanges to try a hostile takeover. I can't see how that's legal. He might of had a legal route option but surely that's gone now.
If the community didn't like the soft fork, we had the option to remove votes from the witnesses that implemented it. I was willing to wait and see how the discussions with Justin, the Steemit Inc employees and the witnesses went but now Justin has ruined the chance of that happening.
I actually agree with you, Justin should have retained the moral high ground and simply spoke to the witnesses.
The real question is; why if the code was there ready to be implemented, was it not done so when Ned was still in charge?
Cg
This question is asking us to speak on behalf of the witnesses. I'm not in a position to do that. However, since I started looking into it when all this happened, it seems clear that the ninja mined Steem has been a n issue and witnesses have been discussing an ethical way to deal with it but since Ned wasn't using it for governance it wasn't as pressing of an issue as it has become in the past couple of weeks. Obviously that was something of a mistake, but I don't think you're taking into account that our witnesses aren't paid representatives and some/many/most (?) are devs working on other projects for Steem. This really strikes me as a legit "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" scenario and now we've reached the bridge. Could it have been foreseen that it would be on fire when we got here? Maybe, but I’m not keen on lashing the team for giving Ned the benefit of the doubt even though in hindsight that was not the best move.
Sorry, I didn't see your reply. However since I asked that initial question, I've had it answered.
The code they implemented, is in fact the very same code that's used to freeze accounts that have been hacked, hence them calling it a 'softfork', which sounds a bit dishonest to me.
Hmm, the reason why I don't buy that is because Ned has been using that Steem for various things other than development, including enriching himself. This was not challenged because they feared Ned, all of those top 20 witnesses, were there because Ned wanted them to be.
The @freedom vote was what put them there, and the lack of it would remove them. Hence they towed the line. Now that Ned has sold his stake, they feel emboldened enough to seize them without prior recourse.
Cg
So who should we watch going forward?
I'm sorry I don't understand the question. How do you mean, watch for what in particular?
Anyway, I think both sides need to move on from this, I've laid out how I think this should begin in my latest article here: The Great Steem-Tron Debate - How To Move On - A Plea To Both Sides
Cg
Ok. I went over it and didn’t see anything so my question was essentially which witnesses do you feel are trustworthy and what direction do they want to take things? Are there witnesses you feel aren’t trustworthy outside of a difference in opinion of the direction you or the witnesses you support want to take the chain?
Also, just for fun. What's your opinion on fucking Ned and #fuckyouned. 🤣
Never mind. If my question is still valid after I read your post I’ll rephrase it.
I could not agree more.
I just checked the Witness Status and of right now:
blocktrades is number 1
roelandp is number 19
good-karma is nuber 20
they do not have the 4 witnesses required to block Justin.
So it looks like Justin will just change the code and take back his Steem and do whatever he wants with it.
The big disappointment for me was the aggressive tone most of our witnesses took during the talk. I may be wrong but I would bet, that had they taken a more conciliatory stance he would not have bothered to power up more to remove the required number of witnesses.
And I hate to admit it but my first thought when they froze the Steem was ''I wonder who will do the most jail time'' Hopefully it wont come to that.
If you check now they are back to having 7 former witnesses back in the top 20
Yea I was just looking at that.
I have the feeling that whatever way it turns out that it wont be good for Steem.
How is all this sitting with you?
I'm not a fan of someone who wants to come in and disregard the existing community that has made steemit what it is. Sure, there is a lot that could be better but the way in which he wanted to make unilateral changes without any input and then to have the nerve to call the previous witnesses malicious hackers for voting how they feel just rubbed me the wrong way.
I can understand that.
I do think the initial action taken against Justin Sun's Stake was a mistake. And it seems that anything good that could have come out of the relationship may now be in jeopardy.
I have eaten my share of humble pie and it does not always taste so good. But at times its just the best thing to do to maintain or regain some integrity. We all fuck things up at some point lol
I would like to see people like @yabapmatt and @lukestokes take a more prominent role in negotiating the settlement. If they stick with the lineup in the last conversation it could drag on and on.
Do you have any thoughts about a choice of negotiators ?
Edit
I am unaware of any unilateral changes he wanted to make. I know the action was taken against his Stake because of fear that he would make unilateral changes but I I dont think they were justifiable fears? I dont know for sure
I think this comment here https://steemit.com/steemit/@netuoso/q5z15y lays out some of the evidence as to why they were justified fears.
Thanks for the link. Yea fear and doubt are motivators but our witnesses took action against the Sun prematurely.
The way it looks now is that the Sun is struggling to even update his witness accounts! That says to me that he was not intending to vote in his own witnesses and his action were more likely to have been motivated by self preservation. I hate to admit it, but I am a bit racist and often feel uncomfortable dealing with Chinese people! Probably because i find it difficult to read them.
I just hope our guys choose people who have a clue about conflict resolution. @lukestokes would be my first choice and as a second @yabapmatt
Both sides need to be heard by each other for a speedy resolution.
Maybe we should run sweepstakes and bet on how long it will take to resolve : )
Could Ned be liable for not disclosing everything? Others are saying the restrictions on Steemit accounts were in the code and just needed to be turned on. It's going to get messy if people go to court. I doubt the witnesses can afford that.
I'm not sure that he needed to, ultimately he owned something and sold it. If those restrictions were in the code, then why did they have to be implemented?
I hope for their sake's it doesn't go to court, because this will financially ruin them, as well as possibly losing their liberty.
Cg
The restrictions weren't specific to that stake. It was just code that allowed a restriction on any named accounts. Presumably to prevent bad actors
Where can we verify that @meesterboom
One thing I have learned about our witnesses is that some of them are not always honest.
You can look at the code. Or there were many posts back at start which explained it. Don't have one to hand though!
k
Justin is a very bad actor.
He also thinks we're complete dumb retards. At least he acts as if he thinks so.
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Yeah, I didn't say he was a good guy.
I was emphasising that the code wasnt there specifically for the ninja mined accounts
Well exactly, to restrict a particular account because you believe they are about to do something bad is an abuse of power, plain and simple. No wonder he called them hackers.
Maybe they'll decide that I'm about to do something bad, or maybe you next...
Cg
@tipu curate :)
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Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 5/10 - need recharge?)
Does this help?
Steem wars part 1: The Empire has a hissy fit.
https://steemit.com/hive-100421/@lucylin/nxkuvibq
Funny!
Cg
I guess, in the last two years, the community has more done for Steem that steemit. The question "Who belongs Steem?" is hard to answer, but surely not with a "100% to steemit Inc".
btw. I have also made a sum up of this story in form of a graphical fairy tale:
https://steempeak.com/hostiletakeover/@achimmertens/the-fairy-tale-of-the-steemland
I don't think it's hard to answer at all. Legally Steemit inc own the IP for Steem, unless they have given up that IP, then it is they who own Steem.
Cg
My stance is that we (mostly witnesses) should have done something about the ninja mined STEEM. But we reached a detente with Ned, and so did nothing.
And when Ned sold those STEEM, it appears that Ned didn't tell Mr. Tron of the obligations that came with that STEEM.
Good points. To add to that, I would question whether the agreement Ned made with the witnesses, is legally binding under US law. If it is, then Ned has broken the law, if it wasn't, then I fear it is the witnesses whom have erred.
Cg
i never saw anything written down.
And seriously nothing was signed.
As i say, it was a detente.
Proving the agreement in a court of law would probably be impossible
but since most of it was discussed on the block chain, it could be doable.
Yeah, that's the point. If it was never ratified as a legal document, then legally Ned was allowed to sell Steemit with the ninja-stake attached to it, allowing the new owner to do whatever they wanted with it.
So whilst Ned may have acted like a shit, and the witnesses like cowards, as far as I can see here Justin broke no laws in the first instance. However I reckon that changed the minute he persuaded exchanges to steal people's funds for the power up.
Cg
What a valuable input. I'm assuming you're calling me the old man yelling at the cloud?
How so? I'm simply laying out what happened. You get triggered very easily, you shouldn't be such a snowflake.
Cg
'illegal'
Dude.. You know why we are in decentralized space where no gov can do anything?
Anyway.. Go to Facebook.
Or smoke some weed against ur pain and be arrested.
Have fun in medieval age.
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I was just pointing out that Steemit Inc is a legal entity in the United States, and therefore will have assets. The government definitely does have jurisdiction in this case.
Cg
what about my asset, which was powered up by exchanges?
LEL dude
That I would imagine, is also illegal, especially under American law, definitely Chinese as well, as both those countries have pretty strict financial regulations surrounding finance and investments in general.
Cg
How about finally decentralizing instead of helping some rich kid, "who owns that"
Looool, idc
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Read this:
https://steempeak.com/@lauch3d/did-the-witnesses-the-right-thing-this-is-why-i-think-politics-should-be-put-to-grave
Very well put. Not many people currently writing articles that aren't completely one-sided on this topic at the moment. That softfork was an attack that shouldn't have happened. Since voice.com is now not going to be decentralized I was really hoping steem would do well. When they get the chain back it won't have the trust unless we get responsible witnesses.